A/N: Already more views than I had dared to hope for and even a review? *grins* I feel so loved. And because of that love, I'm going to work twice as fast!

**later updated thanks to florreco! Thanks again :D**


Tenpuoin Yuuki... a cute name to match a cute face, or so Tatsuma thought. But why was he even thinking this? "I'm starting to feel like some sort of creep," Tatsuma fretted as he reviewed his current situation. For the past ten minutes he had been trudging back home through an ever worsening thunderstorm with a younger - possibly too young - boy nestled in his arms and huddling against him for warmth as icy cold wind and rain whipped at them both, and the primary thing going through Tatsuma's mind was that the boy was cute.

Well, perhaps it wasn't the primary thing since he was also focused on getting them all to the warm safety of his home, but still the cuteness factor seemed too close a second for comfort. The discomfort wasn't that he felt this sort of attraction to the boy, since Tatsuma had already realized his 'preference' was skewed after sharing rooms with multiple boys at the orphanage through his adolescent years, it was the sheer magnitude of this newfound attraction! He hadn't known of the boy's existence until fifteen minutes ago, and already Tatsuma had an uncontrollable need to... To what, exactly? Tatsuma's face went a few shades paler as he identified the nature of his attraction. It wasn't too far off from the way he felt about taking in stray cats: a drive to protect, to nurture, and generally love and care for... until they decided to venture back to the great outdoors, at least.

"But he's a boy, not a cat!" Tatsuma scolded himself while trying his absolute best to hide the traces of distress on his face, just in case the subject of his thoughts happened to look up again and notice. At least his thoughts weren't of a more... evil nature, such as- "No! I can't let myself think about that..." Tatsuma forced his thoughts aside as a dark chill ran down his back, and his grip around the umbrella handle tightened until his knuckles turned white. Prodding at the suppressed darkenned memories of his past was not something he wanted to do. "Focus... focus..." his mind repeated as he searched for something else, anything else, on which he could set his thoughts on.

A quiet sound, a simple shiver faintly heard over the rolling thunder and splattered drops of rainfall, caught Tatsuma's attention, and he lowered his gaze to the boy in his arms. Yuuki was clinging tightly to the oversized trenchcoat, shaking as puffs of white escaped his dry, cracking lips. "We're almost there, Yuuki," Tatsuma said softly, attempting to disguise the worry in his tone and holding the boy closer to his chest. "Nyan-kun, care to help out? You should be plenty warm by now." Suddenly Tatsuma laughed and squirmed, though not enough so to potentially drop everything he was carrying, "H-hey, Nyanmaru, that tickles!"

"Mrerr," the cat huffed his response as he climbed his way over Tatsuma's shoulder and out of his shirt. How else could he have gotten out other than using his caretaker as a ladder? Silly human. With dextrous ease the kitty leaned down and nudged a loose sleeve of the trenchcoat, and within seconds disappeared within. Nyanmaru found it strangely fun to wriggle his way through the tube of fabric, and soon enough he had made it through to the inside of the large coat. The cat sat down on his new perch - the boy's chest - and though it was much colder and wetter than his previous location the cat started to purr.

"Nyanmaru..." Yuuki spoke, quietly, and shifted his arms to hold onto the warm ball of fur. To him, it almost was Nyanmaru; after all the cat had come to his rescue, with Tatsuma's aid of course, and now the kitty was even keeping him warm. "Nyanmaru..." he repeated, almost forgetting the piercing cold that was ravaging his body, "Nyanmaru!" A rough feline tongue ran over the boy's neck, causing a sudden rise in his temperature as a blush hit his cheeks, "N-nyanmaru?"

"We're here." Tatsuma was relieved to finally say those words - though the tone of Yuuki's final 'Nyanmaru' had left him a little curious as to what was going on, but there was no time to worry about that. Tatsuma opened the door with ease since it hadn't been locked or even properly closed due to his hasty departure, and he immediately seemed to set himself a mental checklist on all that needed to be done: both the boy and himself needed to change out of their soaking wet clothes, Nyanmaru needed to be dried off and fed, the fire needed to be rekindled, the blankets needed to be quickly warmed in the dryer, and he needed to make some hot tea and something to eat. Gently Tatsuma set Yuuki down and walked straight to the closet door, but to a moment's dismay he recalled that he only had one clean shirt left. The moment passed quickly, however, as he removed the shirt and a clean pair of drawstring pants and held them out towards the boy. "Bathroom is over there," Tatsuma stated with his free hand pointing to the other door, "They may be a bit big on you, but they're clean and they're dry."

Yuuki was almost reluctant to put down the kitty - who was still curled up in his arms beneath the thoroughly wet trenchcoat - but the idea of fresh clothing was alluring enough to make up for it. He thought to say 'thank you' as he reached out and took the clothes in his numbed hands, but for some reason he couldn't manage to speak a word. The boy's eyes lowered as he mustered up a small nod, and with his gaze still downset he disappeared behind the bathroom door.

Tatsuma couldn't determine whether Yuuki was shy or possibly even scared - a thought which troubled him - but under these circumstances either one was fairly normal. He ran his hand through his drenched bronze hair as he paused the passing of time. "I hope I don't scare him or anything..." Tatsuma sighed and removed the layers of his waterlogged clothes, knowing that he was perfectly safe from being accidently seen thanks to his useful ability.

It was cold, and though he had all the time in the world to spare he hurried to redress himself with his remaining pair of pants. The rest of his body would just have to deal with the cold, since to him it was far more important for the Yuuki to warm up than it was for himself, but as he looked down at his bare, lightly-toned torso another moment of dismay passed. He would now be stuck shirtless, in the presence of a young boy, a young boy who he had found irresistibly cute, who he had just met and brought home in the middle of a freezing cold and stormy night, like some sort of creep.

"Waaah, this is horrible! He's already acting nervous enough around me and now this!? I'm practically naked!" Tatsuma was nearly in panic at this point, and the exaggerations his mind was coming up with certainly weren't helping. (Practically naked? People wear less clothing when they're out swimming.) "Maybe he won't mind? I mean I really don't have much of a choice at this point..." Though still worried Tatsuma snapped his thoughts back into focus, and went back over his mental checklist where one word stood out to him above all others.

Towel.

He still needed a towel to dry off Nyanmaru... and towels, like in most homes, were kept in the bathroom...where Yuuki was currently changing... A slight blush coated Tatsuma's face at the thought of someone - no, at the thought of Yuuki - changing in his bathroom, "No, no, no! Stop being such a creep, Tatsu!" Again Tatsuma was scolding himself, but at least he was blushing about it rather than getting ideas. "Fire," he stated to himself plainly, as if giving himself the order to quite standing around and move on to a task he could currently complete, "Right."

Color returned to the world around him as time was freed from his hold, and Tatsuma went straight to work on reviving the fire. It took less time than he had expected, and the moment that the fireplace lit up a flash of white streaked across the room towards it. "You must be about starving by now, Nyan-kun," Tatsuma smiled as the kitty curled up near the fire, "I'll bring you some food." With a new goal in mind Tatsuma set off, stopping again at the closet to grab both of his blankets before walking across the room into the back corner of the kitchen.

"If only my shirts were dryer friendly," he mumbled quietly to himself as he tossed the blankets into the aforementioned dryer and set it to stay on for thirty minutes. Tatsuma then took a few steps back and set his entire focus on the dryer, mentally forming a box around it. Slowly, he started increasing the flow of time within the region and sent the dryer and its contents through a rapid cycle. With five minutes remaining on the dryer's cycle Tatsuma was satisfied, and slowed the time in the region to normal. For just a moment he smirked, proud that his abilities could be used for something so practical, but still there was much more for him to do... such as preparing dinner and feeding Nyanmaru.

Cooking had always been one of Tatsuma's passions, and though he had planned to do nothing for dinner tonight he was glad that his plans had changed. "I have no idea what he would want to eat..." he thought to himself as he browsed the kitchen for food, "But considering how little I have in stock at the moment I guess it doesn't matter. I'll make up for it tomorrow by letting him pick a few things out at the store." Tea to drink, riceballs for appetizers, udon noodles for the main course, and chichi dango for a sweet desert, surely that would suffice. Using his skills as a chef rather than pausing time Tatsuma quickly finished the preparations for their meal, and moved on to take care of Nyanmaru's.

The kitty's ears twitched the moment he heard the bag of fish scraps being pulled from the fridge, but rather than going to the food like usual Nyanmaru decided to simply wait for the food to be brought to him. After all, he was still cold, and though he had cleaned the mud from his fur he was still soaking wet, and it was so warm and cozy by the fire. Surely food could wait for just a little while. The cat stretched out on the raised platform of the fireplace and yawned; he could definitely wait for food.

"Well, don't you look comfortable, Nyan-kun," Tatsuma commented as he walked back into the main room with the plate of food in his hand. The cat responded only by swishing his tail in the air, but as the plate was set down in front of his nose he thanked his caretaker with a lick to his hand. "Enjoy, Nyanmaru-kun," Tatsuma said with a smile and patted the kitty's head, "You've earned a good meal." With that, Tatsuma was going to return to the kitchen to finish work on dinner, but again a small noise caught his attention.

It had already been a few minutes since Yuuki had gone into the bathroom, but he had barely managed to get anything done. His hands were cold, and his fingers were completely numb; he had struggled to get his jacket off, struggled even more to get his shirt off, his shoes had been easy enough since he never tied them, but his socks were annoying and he found his feet were just as numb as his hands, unbuttoning his pants had taken an entire minute, and even his boxers had given him some trouble to remove. But now, after going through so much just to get the soaked clothes off, he was having even more trouble getting the dry clothes on. The shirt had buttons going all the way up, which refused to be buttoned, and since he didn't like tieing things to begin with, the drawstring for the pants had been conjumbled into a nightmarish knot and still the pants were sliding off of his hips to his knees. Frustrated, Yuuki had groaned, and shortly after that a knock came to the door.

"Is everything alright, Yuuki-kun?" Tatsuma asked nervously from the other side.

"Yuuki... kun?" The boy's cheeks were tinged with a shade of pink; it was strange to be called as such already. Then again it was strange to be putting on someone else's clothes, and it was embarrassing to think that he was having trouble with something as simple as getting dressed. Still, that was the situation he currently found himself in: stuck in a stranger's bathroom with nothing but illfitting pants sitting around his ankles and an unbuttoned shirt falling off his shoulders. "I can't feel my hands... and the buttons are being mean," Yuuki answered shyly, practically pouting as he looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Hearing the reply Tatsuma swallowed uneasily. Yuuki needed to be warmed up, quickly, and the first step was getting clothes on him, but if he couldn't manage it himself..? He could either stay cold and get sick or worse, or someone would have to lend the boy a hand; there was only one acceptable option. "Do you... need some help?"

It was by far the strangest thing that Tatsuma had ever asked anyone."I am such a creep!" he had immediately regretted saying it, finding it horribly wrong to even think about going into that room! But at this point it was too late; the question had already been asked, and if Yuuki wasn't afraid before there was no doubt he would be terrified after hearing that. What kind of pervert would suggest such a thing? The poor boy is probably going to be too scared to leave the room, fearing that if he does he'll be- "No, no, no, NO!" His mind refused to go there.

Tatsuma knew that he could never do such a thing, to anyone, especially not someone like Yuuki. All he intended to do was help the boy get dressed so he could come out of the bathroom and be wrapped up in a warm blanket and given a hot meal, so why did he keep thinking he was doing something wrong?

It had been silent for nearly a minute, but finally Yuuki gave his answer to the question, "... yeah. But you have to promise not to look, okay?"

Tatsuma's forehead fell against the door and his shoulders slumped as those final words struck him to the core. "He does think I'm a creep." It had to be so -why else would the boy have so innocently told him to promise not to look? "I swear, Yuuki-kun," Tatsuma replied, his voice deathly serious, "I will not look." With little warning the lock was unlatched and the door was opened, leaving Tatsuma - who had been leaning against the door in distress - to fall straight forward. "O-oh no!" Tatsuma put an immediate halt on time, but due to the nature of his abilities it was of no use; he was still falling forward, and whatever - or in this case, whoever - he came into contact with would become immune to the time-altering effect.

"!?" Yuuki was renderred speechless as Tatsuma fell onto him, and the difference in their size caused Yuuki to fall back onto the floor - with a half naked guy embracing him while he himself was practically naked.

In a last-second move before impact Tatsuma had placed one of his hands at the back of Yuuki's head and wrapped his other arm around his back, intending to cushion the fall for the unsuspecting boy, but also leaving him in a very awkward position. "Yuuki!" Tatsuma's face was a deep red from embarassment, and he hurriedly tore himself away from the boy and turned around, sitting on the floor with his back facing the other as he stammerred an apology, "I-I'm so sorry Yuuki-kun... U-um... Are you alright?"

Still lying on his back with his gaze set at the ceiling, Yuuki's eyes widenned, "Everything's grey... I'm... I'm colorblind!"

"Mm?" At frst Tatsuma didn't understand, since he had grown accustomed to the greyscaled world of frozen time, but as the realization clicked he sighed in relief. "It's okay, Yuuki-kun," he said calmly and released time, "I had tried to stop everything, b-before I fell on you but I was too late... You aren't hurt though, are you?"

As the color returned to the ceiling - and all else around it - Yuuki sat up and briefly inspected himself. "I think I'm fine..." he answered, "But I still can't feel my fingers..."

"That's right!" Tatsuma had nearly forgotten the reason he had gone into the room in the first place and, keeping his eyes closed just in case, he turned around with a gentle smile on his face. "Let's get you dressed so you can curl up on the couch with a warm blanket, 'kay?"

"Mmkay."


A/N: I could not stop snickering around the sixth paragraph... I simply couldn't. And the snickering continued on all through this chapter!

I must say I've taken quite a liking to my OC in this one - he's turned much less "cool" than I had originally planned, but the random moments of spazzdom and excessive worry make him seem more... harmless. And harmless is good.